How to raise the appeal for Dunkin’ Donuts in China
Thanks to Loke Sihui, Daphne Tan and Isaac Chong
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in the Shanghai Singapore Business Association (SSBA) Hackathon on a digital marketing case for Dunkin Donuts brand.
Together with my friends from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, we presented integrated marketing and tech solutions aimed at helping Dunkin’ Donuts build emotional associations with the Chinese consumers to become the top brand recall for coffee experience in China.
Understanding the case problem and goal
In 2014, Dunkin’ Donuts re-entered China with plans to capture the growing market. However, certain factors made it difficult for the brand to reach its goals and capture local hearts.
- Stiff competition in the Chinese coffee market with dominating brands such as Starbucks, Costa Coffee and home grown unicorn — Luckin Coffee.
- Pre-mature coffee to tea drinking culture.
Our aim, is to come up with an integrated marketing campaign to attract consumers aged 18–25 who buys beverages such as coffee and/or tea on a regular basis, and drive sales in beverages to increase profitability and revenue.
Dunkin’ Donuts has been great at offering top quality coffee and a constructive, functional space for work and social activities in their stores. However, acquiring loyal customers through marketing requires a human-centered approach — where understanding local consumer needs and market trends must be built into marketing strategies.
Getting to know our target consumers
To understand our target consumer, my team went down and talked to local students from Fudan and Jiao Tong University.
Changing consumer ‘coffee drinking’ perception
For the younger crowd, we learnt that coffee is associated with a certain lifestyle imagery. While drinking coffee is considered a sugary stimulant in America, coffee in China is often perceived as a trendy western beverage that reveals one’s status, education and sophistication.
Of course, this statement does not apply across generally. In an article published by Technode, CEO of Luckin Coffee Jenny Zhiya Qian says that the old model of providing an upscale and fancy coffee space for consumers to feel classy will no longer satisfy China’s new coffee consumers. As coffee consumption increases and more than 70 percent of China’s urban population enters the middle class, ‘coffee drinking’ is becoming a habitual consumption.
After interacting with our target audience, we created a user persona.
This group of customers represent our engaged and sociable millennials. They love seizing the moment and new experiences. It is important for them to belong and express themselves in creative ways while getting that coffee fix. Quirky, fun and digitally savvy, this group of consumers is our ideal Dunkin’ Donuts consumer.
→ After understanding the above, we can ask ourselves 3 things:
- How can we introduce a coffee culture game changer to become the top brand recall for coffee experience in China?
- How can we improve our service/ product offerings that can provide for changing consumer demands for more affordable and accessible coffee?
- How can we position ourselves and create marketing campaigns that resonate with our engaged idealists?
Solution #1: New Menu + Packaging
When people think about Dunkin’ Donuts, majority of our respondents associate it with unhealthy, sweet and fattening. We wanted to change the negative emotional associations. For the increasingly health conscious consumers, we propose launching a new seasonal menu that promotes healthy and shareable everyday indulgences.
Our limited edition summer menu promotion would feature guilt-free bite-sized, mini baked donuts centered around fruits and tea flavours to suit local tastes.
We would also tinker with innovative packaging designs. Our engaged idealists love to be a part of and share anything new and exciting. In fact, 60% of millennials love sharing their food online.
Hence, our packaging would be aesthetic, customizable and hassle-free. The idea is that consumers can carry their donuts and coffee along with our easy-to-use and recyclable cup. On the streets, they can chew our donuts and sip a little coffee in one hand, while watching their favourite show on their phones in the other.
Solution #2: Interactive, Social Commerce APP
After having lived in Shanghai for close to a year, we realised that food delivery is a strong culture in China. Technology has made obtaining food so easy, that ordering food to the doorstep has become a way of life for Chinese consumers. Furthermore, we learnt from doing competitor analysis, that weaving mobile apps and a new retail model of coffee pick up and delivery was a pivotal reason for Luckin Coffee’s success in entering an already highly contested market.
We understand that our target consumers are digitally savvy and constantly on-the-go. Hence, we propose building an interactive social commerce APP to engage and provide a convenient platform to purchase DD products — built to order and share on the go.
1. Order on the go
To order-on-the-go, users can purchase by selecting pick-up, or delivery. During check-out, users can even customize their sleeves with moods and quotes. AI will be integrated to remember user preferences and recommend combos.
2. Share on the go (peer to peer network)
To share-on the-go, users can gift customized DD coffee, send app-invite links for both parties to get a free drink and engage in multi-cart orders (一起点）.
Pop-up stores as a lean strategy will be effectively plotted to gain offline presence and operational excellence with the delivery and pick up service offering.
3. APP features to retain users
There are 4 million mobile apps in China, and APP retention rate is at a low 18%. Hence, our app will include enhancements like Gamification, Store Vacancy and Timed-Sales to aid in user retention on our APP.
- Our game will incentive continued use via credits, merchandise tokens and crazy rewards.
- Store Vacancy will smart track occupancy level of stores, distribute traffic flow and collect data for consumer insights.
- Timed-sales will be used to excite and encourage purchase.
Integrated Marketing Campaign Overview
Our campaigns aim to be interesting, fun and quirky.
- Awareness: we propose to make use of social media and key opinion leaders to spark curiosity and buzz online with a viral video challenge.
- Consideration: we want to infiltrate WeChat conversations by launching an Augmented Reality Game in metros where commuters can tap and collect floating emoji stickers (表情包）via phone interface.
- Purchase: we propose to recommend our app in physical outlets and push timely sales.
- Advocacy: we propose to retain and attract new and existing users via our app enhancement features and CSR efforts.
IMC #1: 30s We Chat mini program game — Collect We Chat emoji stickers
An interesting way to connect with consumers is by creating our very own iconic Dunkin Donuts brand, We Chat emoji sticker packs. A campaign that we propose, is by investing in Augmented reality technology, where consumers can use their phones to collect emojis floating around in subway trains. This is a game that will not only initiate conversations and virality on We Chat, it will also build positive emotional associations towards the brand.
Process:
- Scan emoji stickers on train walls （路程太长？玩个游戏!)
- Enter We Chat official account to view instructions of game
- Enter Mini program game (30s)
- Tap to collect floating AR emoji stickers in train
- Share on We Chat moments of send stickers to your friends!
IMC #2: #BeYourself Video Campaign
One idea we had to raise awareness for Dunkin Donuts brand is by creating a viral video campaign on a very popular social media platform in China — Tik Tok. Otherwise, known as 抖音 （Douyin).
The current attention span of consumers today, is at 9 seconds. Video platforms like Tik Tok that encourages brevity for rich content is perfect for attracting the attention of Chinese consumers.
Our IMC viral video aims to encourage UGC submissions on Tik Tok to showcase talents with hastags #LetsGoDunkin, #BeYourself #GiveMeCourage. The theme will centre around “Chasing Ambitions” and “Staying True To Oneself‘, to associate DD’s support in youths to pursue dreams and stay real.
Videos will be ranked on engagement with the opportunity to win exciting holiday trips to journey with DD.
An overview of China’s digital marketing ecosystem
These are the marketing channels in China which we will leverage on for our campaign kickoff. The right column shows our evaluation metrics to measure success.
Post Purchase stage: CSR for advocacy
Lastly, beyond a well integrated IMC, we understand millennials need to be constantly engaged throughout the entire purchase journey till post purchase.
Hence, we propose investing in a CSR recycling project through our App where smart bins will collect and recycle used cups with monetary incentives.This will allow our consumers an avenue to do good and continuously return to purchase at Dunkin Donuts.
For example, a consumer — May can scan the QR code on the bin to login to the recycling section of the app and open the lid. She can then compress the cup and sleeve to get rid of the remaining residue and fit them inside the bin. She gets credits for every cup she recycles. The compressed, clean cup is then ready for upcycling, and its constituents can be re-processed to make bags and paper products which can be sold for extra revenue. With extra credits and upcycled products, Dunkin will attract May and 110000 others like her back to the store.
Many thanks to Loke Si Hui, Daphne Tan and Isaac Chong. Also, to the SSBA organizers, case sponsors and the Dunkin Donuts team for their guidance and the opportunity to work on this project.
